230 OCEAN TO OCEAN ON HORSEBACK. 



birch canoes and then scattered tlirough the neighbor- 

 ing forests. Returning in the spring to a small cabin 

 which had been built near their landing-place by the 

 Northwestern Fur Coni[)any, they disposed of their 

 spoils, and when their business with their white 

 brothers was over, re-enibarked for their summer 

 homes on the Maumee and Sandusky. 



When General Moses Cleveland came with a sur- 

 veying party in 1796 to lay out the site of the chief 

 city of the ^' Reserve " for the Connecticut Land 

 Company, the cabin of the fur-traders was still stand- 

 ing, but was in too dilapidated a condition to be of 

 use. Two more cabins were therefore raised, one for 

 the party, and the other for Job Stiles, and his wife 

 Tabitha, who was housekeeper. When the ])lans 

 were finished the woman of the settlement found her- 

 self the possessor of one city lot, one ten-acre lot, and 

 one one hundred-acre lot, a donation from the di- 

 rectors and stockholders of the company, made no 

 doubt in consideration of her services, and from the 

 fact that she was the first white woman to take up her 

 abode on the new ground. Two more gifts of the 

 valuable land were made, one to Nathaniel Doane, the 

 company's blacksmith, who had kept their pack-mules 

 shod, and the other to James Kino-sburv and his wife, 

 the first who emigrated independently to the. Reserve. 

 Within eighty years the worth of this property had 

 increased surprisingly, but the first owners had long 

 since ceased to care tor worldly goods, and the land 

 had been resold many times. Buildings that would 

 have astonished tliose early folk had replaced their 

 simple cabins, and thousands of strange feet were 

 treading in their old haunts. 



